get_the_author_link(): string

Description

Compatibility

Present in every tracked release (6.7.7 to 7.1.0), and compiles on PHP 7.4 through 8.6-dev.

Return value

string

An HTML link if the author's URL exists in user meta, otherwise the result of get_the_author().

Performance profile

How much work a call to get_the_author_link() does, and what it touches: the algorithmic scaling, the Zend instruction count per call across PHP versions, the hooks it hands control to, and the core code that calls it. Measured from the compiled opcodes, not a stopwatch, so every number is identical on any machine running the same PHP version, and every function in core is ranked by cost.

Cost class

Trivial

Touches nothing outside its own arguments.

Scaling

Constant

No loop in the body: the same number of instructions runs whatever you pass in.

Instructions

7–39

Executed per call on PHP 8.5, depending on the branch taken. The body compiles to 42.

Plugin surface

1 hook

Third-party callbacks on 'the_author_link' run inside this call, and their cost is not bounded by anything here.

Called by

1

1 place in core call this, so the cost is paid more often than your own code shows.

What it touches

• hookthird-party callbacksapply_filters()called directly

Further down the call graph this can also reach query, option, cache, serialize and transient. Those are the worst case, several calls deep and usually down an error path, not what a normal call pays.

What one call costs · 2 distinct outcomes

One number would be a lie: the work depends on which branch runs. These are every distinct cost get_the_author_link() can have, taken from its control-flow graph on PHP 8.5.

Hooks and filters fired · 1

One hook fires while get_the_author_link() runs, in this order:

1. 1
   apply_filters( the_author_link )filterline 257 (+24 into the body)

   Filters the author URL link HTML.

Uses · 6

• get_the_author_meta()Retrieves the requested data of the author of the current post.
• get_the_author()Retrieves the author of the current post.
• esc_url()Checks and cleans a URL.
• esc_attr()Escaping for HTML attributes.
• __()Retrieves the translation of $text.
• apply_filters()Calls the callback functions that have been added to a filter hook.

Used by · 1

• the_author_link()Displays either author's link or author's name.

Source code

View on Trac ↗View on GitHub ↗

233function get_the_author_link() {234	if ( get_the_author_meta( 'url' ) ) {235		global $authordata;236 237		$author_url          = get_the_author_meta( 'url' );238		$author_display_name = get_the_author();239 240		$link = sprintf(241			'<a href="%1$s" title="%2$s" rel="author external">%3$s</a>',242			esc_url( $author_url ),243			/* translators: %s: Author's display name. */244			esc_attr( sprintf( __( 'Visit %s&#8217;s website' ), $author_display_name ) ),245			$author_display_name246		);247 248		/**249		 * Filters the author URL link HTML.250		 *251		 * @since 6.0.0252		 *253		 * @param string  $link       The default rendered author HTML link.254		 * @param string  $author_url Author's URL.255		 * @param WP_User $authordata Author user data.256		 */257		return apply_filters( 'the_author_link', $link, $author_url, $authordata );258	} else {259		return get_the_author();260	}261}

Changelog

Introduced in 3.0.0. One change between 6.7.7 and 7.1.0.

1. 6.7.7
2. 6.8.8
3. 6.9.7
4. 7.0.4
5. 7.1.0

Signature, return type and hooks compared across 5 parsed releases.

About this page

Parsed data

Generated from the wordpress-develop 6.7.7 tag, from src/wp-includes/author-template.php, and regenerated for each WordPress release so it tracks the code rather than a snapshot of it.

Corrections

Something wrong on this page? Report it and it gets fixed in the next regeneration.